Pebble Debuts The Pebble Time Round

Pebble, the company that arguably sparked the whole smartwatch trend with a $10M Kickstarter back in 2012, is shifting things up today. After years of sticking with square-faced displays, the company is today introducing its first round-faced smartwatch. It’s called, aptly, the Pebble Time Round.

I’ve done a complete 180 on Pebble. I really loved the original watch, released back in 2013, but after my brief couple weeks with this year’s Pebble Time, my initial excitement quickly faded as I realized that it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. Sure, battery life is great but the screen is beyond terrible (actually harder to see than the original) and the lack of any significant apps made it tough to get behind.

In the case of this new device, with uses much of the same hardware as the Time, things don’t seem to be getting much better. Round smartwatches, in my opinion, just don’t work.

It feels more and more like Pebble’s days are numbered. That’s assuming the company doesn’t release an entirely new, more contemporary watch. Even then, the lead by the Apple Watch as well as the growing number of Android Wear devices will make it next to impossible to compete at that stage.